Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 4 February 2026.
Anna Turley
Minister without Portfolio
Capita took over the administration on 1 December 2025. Since then, Capita has completed pension payments to approximately 730,000 retired members on time. However, some civil servants and pension scheme members are facing unacceptable delays in accessing their pension payments.
While Capita inherited a significant backlog of cases from the previous provider, MyCSP, this is now worse and we are urgently addressing that. In response, we have set up a dedicated team to work urgently with Capita, with 650 full time staff across Government and Capita clearing critical cases by the end of February and restoring normal service as soon as possible.
We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. This includes specific commitments to restore service levels for priority cases, deploy additional resources, and improve communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.